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The Dark Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association, 1922–1926
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 June 2012
Abstract
After World War I, federal policy toward American farmers encouraged them to help themselves through cooperative action. This summary of the aspirations and failure of one of the resultant agri-business organizations provides better understanding of one commercial farm group's eventual appeal for government aid.
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- Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1966
References
1 Black, John D., Agricultural Reform in the United States (New York, 1929), 336.Google Scholar
2 For an account of the organization of these large-scale cotton organizations, see Gatlin, George O., “Cooperative Marketing of Cotton,” United States Department of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 1392 (Washington, D.C., January 1926), 1–12.Google Scholar
3 The Agricultural Council of Kentucky, sponsored by the Farm Bureau Federation, was formed in Louisville, Kentucky, February 7, 1922, to pass on the feasibility and responsibility of any cooperative movement in Kentucky and render advice and assistance to farmers. See Hopkinsville Daily Kentucky New Era, February 11, 1922.
4 Judge Robert W. Bingham, publisher of the Louisville Courier-Journal and Louisville Times, became interested in the cooperative movement as an instrument of public policy; was most influential in the passage of the Bingham Cooperative Act of Kentucky; and gave both time and money in helping to organize farmer cooperatives in Kentucky during the early 1920's.
5 Aaron Sapiro, formerly of California, had gained prominence by his exposition of cooperative marketing plans for cotton growers of the Deep South, He also worked out the organizational plans for the Tri-State and Burley Tobacco Growers Associations, formed in 1921.
6 Association Agreement of the Dark Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, 1922.
7 Tobacco Planter (Official Publication of the Dark Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association published at Louisville, Kentucky), I (December, 1922), 6.
8 Association Agreement, Section 16, Dark Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association.
9 Tobacco Planter, I (Feb., 1923), 6 (June, 1923), 5, 12.
10 Ogilvie, Frances, Green Bondage (New York, 1933), 45.Google Scholar
11 Tobacco Planter, loc. cit.
12 Brann v. Dark Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association, “Report of the Special Master, October 1, 1927,” District Court of the United States for the Western District of Kentucky, Paducah, Kentucky.
13 The estimates of total acreage made by the organization committee apparently were based on the preliminary estimates of the Crop Reporting Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
14 Section 18(a) of the Association Marketing Agreement provided that the grower agreed to pay to the association the sum of five cents per pound for all tobacco delivered, consigned, marketed, or withheld other than in accordance with the terms provided by the contract.
15 Brann v. Dark Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association, “Report of the Special Master, October 1, 1928,” District Court of the United States for the Western District of Kentucky, Paducah, Kentucky.
16 Tobacco Planter, op. cit., 11.
17 The American Tobacco Company and the Imperial Tobacco Company gave as one of their reasons for refusal to buy tobacco in quantity from cooperative associations the fact that the grading was found to be unsatisfactory and unsuitable for their requirements. See Report of the Federal Trade Commission on the Tobacco Industry (With Basic Data), 69th U.S. Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document 34, p. 129.
18 Ewing, Felix G., The Tobacco Situation in the Dark Tobacco District (Clarksville, Tennessee, 1913), 32.Google Scholar
19 For example, see Hopkinsville Daily Kentucky New Era, January 1, 1923.
20 In this survey, interviews were made with 215 former members of the association and 82 nonmembers in 16 counties covering the five more or less specialized type districts composing the dark tobacco area. In selecting the sample, an attempt was made to obtain interviews with some of the leading farmers in each county while all other interviews were made with farmers selected at random.
21 Association Agreement, Section 13(a).
22 Tobacco Planter, II (October 1923), 1.
23 Ibid.
24 Data on the average prices of all dark tobacco were compiled from the First Annual Report on Tobacco Statistics (With Basic Data), United States Department of Agriculture, Bulletin 58, 1937, while the data on the prices of the Association were computed from exhibits in the case of Brann v. Dark Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association, District Court of the United States, for the Western District of Kentucky, Faducah, Kentucky.
25 These data were computed from Schedules “D” and “F” in the Exhibits of the Secretary -Treasurer of the association submitted in the case of Brann v. Dark Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association, District Court of the United States for the Western District of Kentucky, Paducah, Kentucky.
26 Data computed from the First Annual Report on Tobacco Statistics (With Basic Data), loc. cit.
27 Data computed from information published in Tobacco Planter I (July 1923), 15.
28 These data were taken from Schedule “A” of the Exhibits filed by the Secretary-Treasurer of the association in the case of Brann v. Dark Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association in the District Court of the United States for the Western District of Kentucky, Paducah, Kentucky.
29 Brann v. Dark Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association, “Report of the Special Master, October I, 1928.”
30 Ibid.
31 Brann v. Dark Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association, District Court of the United States, Western District of Kentucky, Paducah, Kentucky.
32 Ibid.
33 Brann v. Dark Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association, “Report of the Special Master, October 1, 1927.”
34 See Springfield (Tenn.) Herald-News, July 27, 1922.
35 Tobacco Planter, I (November 1923), 3.
36 Report of the Federal Trade Commission on the Tobacco Industry, 69th Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Document 34, 1926, p. 1.
37 Ibid., 7.
38 Among the leaders who were consulted in working out the new plan were: Hon. W. M. Jardine, Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture; Chris L. Christensen, head of the Division of Cooperative Marketing in the Bureau of Agricultural Economics; Herman Steen and W. H. Settle, connected with the Indiana Farm Bureau; and Professor O. B. Jesness and M. O. Hughes, who represented the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station.
39 The separate associations provided for under the new plan of organization were: the Springfield Tobacco Cooperative Association, the Clarksville Tobacco Cooperative Association, the Hopkinsville Tobacco Cooperative Association, the Western District Tobacco Cooperative Association, the Stemming Tobacco Cooperative Association, the Green River Tobacco Cooperative Association, and the One Sucker Tobacco Cooperative Association.
40 Tobacco Planter, V (September 1927), 6.
41 Ibid., 3.